The Vain Refuge of Sinners, or A Meditation on the Rocks near Tunbridge Wells, 1729
Rev. vi. 15, 16 17. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, &c. hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the rocks and mountains, fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.
In the former discourse on this text, we have taken a survey of these two persons and their characters, God and the Lamb, whose united wrath spreads so terrible a scene through the world at the great judgment-day; we have also inquired, and found sufficient reasons, why the anger and justice of God should be so severe against the sinful sons and daughters of men, who have wilfully broken his law, and refused the grace of his gospel; and why the indignation of the Son of God should be superadded to all the terrors of his Father’s vengeance.
We are now come to the third and last general head of discourse, and that is to consider, ‘how vain will all the refuges and hopes of sinners be found in that dreadful day, when God and the Lamb shall join to manifest their wrath and indignation against them.’
These hopes, and shifts, and refuges of rebellious and guilty creatures, are represented by a no*ble image and description in my text: “They shall call to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon them, and to cover them from the face of him that sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” As this address to mountains and to rocks appears to be but a vain hope in extreme distress, when a feeble and helpless criminal is pursued by a swift and mighty avenger, so vain and fruitless shall all the hopes of sinners be, to escape the just indignation and sentence of their Judge. In order to shew the vanity of all the refuges and shifts to which sinners shall betake themselves in that clay, let us spread abroad this sacred description of them in a paraphrase under the following heads.
1. Let us consider the ‘rocks and mountains, as vast and mighty created beings, of huge figure, and high appearance, whose aid is sought in the last extremity of distress;’ and what is this but calling upon creatures to help them against their Creator? What is it but flying to creatures to deliver and save them, when their offended God resolves to punish? A vain refuge indeed, when God, the Almighty Maker of all things, and Jesus his Son, by whom all things were made, shall agree to arise and go forth against them, in their robes of judgment, and with their artillery of vengeance! What created being dares interpose in that hour to shelter or defend a condemned criminal? What high and mighty creature is able to afford the least security or protection?
The princes of the earth, and the captains, the kings, and heroes, and conquerors, with all their millions of armed men, are not able to lift a hand, for the defence of one sinner against the anger of God and the Lamb. They themselves shall quake and shiver at the tremendous sight, and they shall fly into the holes of the rocks like mere cowards, and shall join their outcries with the poor and the slave, entreating the rocks and mountains to befriend them with shelter and safety.
Not the highest mountains, not the hardest or the strongest rocks, not the most exalted or most powerful persons, or things in nature can defend, when the God of nature resolves to destroy. When he who is higher than the highest, and stronger than the strongest, shall pronounce destruction upon rebels, what creature can speak deliverance?
The rocks and the mountains obey their Maker, they shiver in pieces at the word of his wrath, and will yield no relief to criminals: but man, rebellious man, disobeys his Maker, and calls to the rocks and mountains to protect him. Vain hope, 0 sinner, to make the most exalted creatures your friends, when God the Creator is your enemy. These inanimate things have never learnt disobedience to their Maker, and rather than screen a rebel from his deserved judgments, they will offer themselves as instruments of divine vengeance.
2. Rocks and mountains in their clifts, and dens, and caverns, are sometimes considered as ’ places of secresy and concealment’ My text tells us, that ’ kings and mighty men, the rich and the free man, as well as the poor and the slave, hid themselves in dens, and in the rocks of the mountains.’ They hoped there might be some secret corner, whose thick shadows and darkness were sufficient to hide them, where the Judge might not spy or find them out. Vain hope for sinners to hide in the holes of the rocks, and the deepest caverns of the mountains, to escape the notice of that God, who is all eye and all ear, and present at once in every place of earth and heaven! Foolish expectation indeed, to avoid the notice of the Son of God, “whose eyes are as a flame of fire,” and shoot through the earth and its darkest caves.
Read the 139th Psalm, 0 3inner! and then think if it be possible to flee from the eye of God, and to hide thyself in the clefts of the rock, where his hand shall not find thee. — He has already ’ beset thee behind and before,’ and his hand already compasses thee round about in all thy paths. Darkness itself cannot cover thee; ’ the night shines as the day’ before him, and scatters light round about the criminal that would hide himself from the wrath of God. Ask Jeremy the prophet, and he shall tell thee, that “none can hide himself in secret places where God shall not see him, the God who fills heaven and earth,” Jer. xxiii. 4. He shall hunt obstinate sinners from every mountain, and out of the holes of the rocks; for his eyes are upon all their ways, neither their persons, nor their iniquities, can be hid from him.
And, as you can never conceal yourselves from the sigh and notice of the Judge, so neither can you turn your eyes away from him. You must behold his face in vengeance, and endure the distressing sight. The rays of his Majesty, in the day of his wrath, shall strike through all the crannies of the darkest den, and pierce the deepest shade. “Lord, when thy hand is lifted up they will not see; but they shall see and be ashamed,’ Isa. xxvi. 10. And the face of the Lamb must be seen in all its unknown terrors, Rev. i. 7. “Behold, he comes in the clouds, and every eye shall see him:” the guilty creature, and the divine Avenger, shall meet eye to eye, though the creature has hid himself under rocks and mountains.
3. These rocks and mountains’ are designed to represent, not only concealment and darkness by their holes and caverns, but they are known ‘bulwarks of defence, and ‘places of security and shelter, by reason of their strength and thickness.’ When the prophet would express the safety of the man who practises righteousness in a vicious age, Isa. xxxiii. 16, he says, “He shall dwell on high, his place of defence shall be a munition of rocks.” These shall be a bulwark round him for his guard and safety. When sinners therefore flee to the mountains, and to the rocks, they may be supposed to seek a thick covering, or a shield of defence to secure them, where the strokes of divine anger shall not break through and reach them. They trust to the solid protection of the rocks, and the strength of the mountains to guard them; but these, alas! can yield no shelter from the stroke of the arm of God. Should the rocks, 0 sinner I attempt to befriend thee, and surround thee with their thickest fortification, his wrath would cleave them asunder and pierce thee to the soul, with greater ease than thou canst break through a paper wall with the battering engines of war. Ask the prophet Nahum, who was acquainted with the majesty of God, and he shall tell thee, how it “throws down the mountain, and tears the rock in pieces. When his fury is poured out like fire, the mountains quake at him, the hills melt, the earth is burnt at his presence, with all that” dwell therein. He that “has his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet,” what mountain “canstand before his indignation?” And where is the rock “that can abide in the fierceness of his anger?’’ Nah. i. 2 — 6. Were the whole globe of the earth one massy rock, and should it yawn to the very centre to give thee a refuge and hiding-place, and then close again and surround thee with its solid defence, yet, when the Lord commands, the earth will obey the voice of him that made it; this solid earth would cleave again and resign the guilty prisoner, and yield thee up to the sword of his justice. Wheresoever God resolves to strike, safety and defence are impossible things. The sinner must suffer without remedy, and without hope, who has provoked an Almighty God, and awakened the wrath of that Saviour “who <ian subdue all things to himself,”
4. ‘Rocks and mountains’ falling upon us are ‘instruments of sudden and overwhelming death.’ When sinners therefore call to the ‘rocks and mountains to fall upon them and cover them, they are supposed to endeavour to put an end to their own beings by some overwhelming destruction, that they may not live to feel and endure the resentments of an affronted God, and an abused Saviour. Though they are just raised to life, they would fain die again; but God, who calls the dead from their graves, will forbid the rocks and the mountains, and every creature, to lend sinners their aid to destroy themselves. Sinners, in that dreadful day, shall ’ seek death, but death shall flee from them.’ Their natures are now made immortal, and the fall of rocks and mountains cannot crush them to death. They must live to sustain the weight of divine wrath, which is heavier than rocks and mountains.
The life which God hath now given to men in this mortal state, may be given up again, or thrown away by the daring impiety of self-murder; and they may make many creatures instruments of their own destruction; but the life which the Son of God shall give them, when he calls them from the dead is everlasting; they cannot resign their existence and immortality, they cannot part with it, nor can any creature take it from them. They would rathe.- die than see God in his majesty, or the Lamb arrayed in his robes of judgment; but the wretches are immortal ized to punishment, by the long abused majesty and power of God: and they must live forever to learn what it is to despise the authority of God, and to abuse the grace of a Saviour. Their doom is u everlasting burnings: they have no rest day nor night, the smoke of their torment will ascend fcr ever and ever, in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.” Rev. xiv. 10,-11.
Thus have we considered those huge and bulky beings, the rocks and the mountains, in all their vast and mighty figures and appearances, with all their clefts, and dens, and caverns, for shelter and concealment,, with all their fortification and massy thickness for defence, and with all their power to crush and destroy mankind, and yet we find them utterly insufficient to hide, cover, or protect guilty creatures, in that great day of the wrath of God and the Lamb.
REFLECTIONS ON THE FOREGOING DISCOURSE.
1. ‘How strangely do all the appearances of Christ to sinners, in the several seasons and dispensations of his grace, differ from that last great and solemn appearance, which to them will be a dispensation of final vengeance. He visited the world in divine visions of old, even from the day of the sin of Adam, and it was to reveal mercy to sinful man; and he sometimes assumed the majesty of God, to let the world know he was not to be trifled with. He visited the earth at his incarnation: how lowly was his state! how full of grace his ministry! yet he then gave notice of this day of vengeance, when he should appear in his own and his Father’s most awful glories.
He visits the nations now with the word of salvation, he appears in the glass of his gospel, and in the ordinances of his sanctuary, as a Saviour whose heart melts with love, and in the language of his tenderest compassions, and of his dying groans, he invites sinners to be reconciled to an offended God. He appears as a Lamb made a sacrifice for sin, and as a Minister of his Father’s mercy, offering and distributing pardons to criminals. But, when he visits the world as a final judge, how solemn and illustrious will that appearance be? How terrible his countenance to all those who have refused to receive him as a Saviour? “Behold he cometh in flaming fire, with ten thousand of his angels, to render vengeance to them that” resisted his grace, and disobeyed the invitation of his gospel, 2 Thes. i. 7.
Time was, when the “Father sent forth his Son, not to condemn the world, but that through him the world might have life,” John iii. 17. But the time is coming, when God shall send him arrayed with Majesty, and with righteous indignation, to condemn the rebellious world, and inflict upon them the pains of eternal death. Hast thou seen him, 0 my soul! in the discoveries of his mercy, fly to him with all the wings of faith and love, with all the speed of desire and joy fly to him, receive his grace, and accept of his salvation, that when the day of the wrath of the Lamb shall appear, thou mayest behold his countenance without terror and confusion.
Refl. 2. ‘How very different will the thoughts of sinners be in that day, from what they are at present? How different their wishes and their inclinations?’ And that with regard to this one terror, which my text describes, viz. that they shall address themselves to the rocks and mountains for shelter, and fly into the dens and caverns of the earth for concealment and safety. Let us survey this in a few particulars.
Sinners, whose ’ looks were once lofty and disdainful,’ whose eyes were exalted in pride, their mouth set against the heavens, and their hearts haughty and full of scorn, they shall be humbled to the dust of the earth, they shall creep into the hiding-places of the moles and the bats, and thrust their heads into holes and caverns, and dens of desolation, at the appearance of God their Creator in flaming fire, and the Son of God their Judge; for he is the avenger of his own and his Father’s injured honours.
Sinners who were ’ once fond of their idols and their sensual delights,’ who made idols to themselves of every agreeable creature, and gave it that place in their hearts which belongs only to God, they shall be horribly confounded in that day, when God shall appear in his Majesty, to shake the earth to the centre, and to burn the surface of it with all its bravery. This is nobly described by the prophet Isaiah, chap, the 2d from 10 — 21. “In that day shall a man cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made, each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats, to go into the clefts of the rock, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of his Majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.”
Sinners who once ’ could not tell how to spend a day without gay company,’ those sons and daughters of mirth, who turned their midnights into noon, with the splendor of their lamps, and the rich and shining furniture of theii palaces, those noisy companions of riot, who made the streets of the city resound with their midnight revels, they shall now fly to the solitary caverns of the rocks, and would be glad to dwell there in darkness and silence for ever, if they might but avoid the wrath of a provoked God, and the countenance of an abused Saviour. They would fain be shut up for ever from day-light, lest they should see the face of an Almighty enemy, whose name and honour have been reproached, in their songs of lewd jollity and profaneness.
Sinners who once were fond of liberty in the wildest sense,’ and could not bear that any restraints should be laid upon their persons or their wishes, who never could endure the thought of a confinement to their closets, for one half hour to converse with God, or with their own souls there, they call now aloud to the rocks and the mountains to immure them round, as a refuge from the eye of their Judge. They were once perpetually roving abroad, and gadding through all the gay scenes of sensuality, in quest of new and flowery pleasures, but now they beg to be imprisoned for ever in the dens and caves of the earth; the deepest and most dismal caves are their most ardent wishes, that they might never see the countenance of their divine Avenger, nor feel the weight of his hand.
Sinners who ’ heretofore thought themselves and their deeds of darkness secure enough from the eye of God, and from the strokes of his justice,’ while they revelled in their common habitations, those, who even under the open sky could defy the Almighty, could laugh at his threatenings,and mock the prophecies of his vengeance, now they can find no caverns, deep or dark enough, to hide them from his sight; his lightnings penetrate the hardest rocks, and shine into the deepest solitudes: there is no screen or shelter thick and strong enough to stand between God and them, and to cover and shield them from his thunder. — They call now to the mountains and the rocks to be an eternal screen; but the rocks and the mountains are deaf to their cry. Then shall they remember, with unknown regret and anguish, those days of gra-ce, when Christ Jesus, who is now their Judge, offered himself to become a screen to them, and a defence from the anger of God their Creator: but they rejected this offered grace. He would have been the rock of their safety, where they should have found refuge from the fiery threatenings of the broken law, and the majesty of an offended God: the Father himself had appointed him for this kind office to repenting sinners, and perhaps he gave Moses a type or emblem of it, when he commanded him to hide himself in the clefts of the rock, to secure him from destruction, while the burning blaze of his glory passed by, Exod. xxxiii. 22. And Isaiah the prophet had foretold, that this Jesus should be as “the shadow of a great rock,” to shelter them from the beams of the wrath of God; but they refused this blessing, they renounced this refuge; and now they find there is no other rock sufficient to become a shelter from the stroke of his almighty arm, or a sufficient shadow from the burning vengeance.
Sinners, who ’ once over-rated their flesh and blood, and loved it with infinite fondness,’ who treated their fleshly appetites with excessive nicety and elegance, and affected a humourous delicacy in every thing round about them, would now gladly creep into the mouldy caverns of the rocks, they would be glad to hide and defile themselves in the dark and noisome grottos of the earth, and squeeze their bodies into the rough and narrow clefts, to shield themselves from the indignation of him that sits upon the throne, and of the Lamb.
Those who ’ once were so tender of this mortal life and limbs, and could not think of bearing the least hardship for the sake of virtue and piety, are now wishing to have those delicate limbs of theirs crushed by the fall of rocks and mountains. They wish earnestly to have their lives and their souls destroyed for ever, and their whole natures buried in desolation and death, if they might but avoid the eternal agonies and torments that are prepared for them. Now they long for caverns, and graves, to hide them for ever from the justice of God, whose authority they have despised, and from the wrath of a Saviour whose mercy they have impiously renounced.
Look forward, 0 my soul! to this awful and dreadful hour; survey this tremendous scene of confusion, when sinners shall run counter to all their former principles and wishes, and pass a quite different judgment upon their sinful delights, from what they were wont to do in the days of this life of vanity. Learn, 0 my soul! to judge of things more agreeably to the appearances of that day. Never canst thou set the flattering pleasures of sense, and the joys of sin, in a truer and juster view, than the light of this ominous and tremendous judgment.
Kefl. 3. ( How great and dreadful must the distress of creatures be, when they cannot bear to see the face of God their Creator?’ How terrible must be the circumstances of the sons of men, when they cannot endure to see the face of the Son of God, but would fain hide themselves from the sight under rocks and mountains? How wretched must their state be, who avoid the face of the blessed God with horror, which the holy angels ever behold with most intense delight, and which the saints rejoice in as their highest happiness? It is their heaven to see God, and behold the glory of his Son Jesus, Matth. v. 8. John xvii. .But this is the very hell of sinners in that dismal hour, and will fill their souls with such inexpressible anguish, that they call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from the sight. Dreadful and deplorable is their case indeed, who cannot endure to see the countenance of Jesus the Son of God, Jesus the Saviour of men, the copy of the Father’s glory, and the image of his beauty and love. — They cannot bear to see that Jesus who is the chiefest of ten thousands, and altogether lovely; they fly from that blessed countenance, which is the ornament, and the joy of all the holy and happy creation; that blessed countenance is become the terror and confusion of impenitent and guilty rebels.
And what shall I do, if I should be found among this criminal number, in that great day? If I look at the wisdom and the righteousness of God, these will reflect the keenest rays of horror and anguish upon my soul, for it is that wisdom, and that righteousness, that have joined to prepare the salvation which I have rejected; and therefore now that wise and righteous God seeth it proper and necessary to punish me with everlasting sorrows. If I look at the power of God, it is a dreadful sight. Eternal and almighty power, that can break through rocks and mountains, to inflict vengeance upon the guilty, and that stands engaged by his honour to break my rebellious spirit with unknown torments. If I look at bis goodness or his love, it is love and goodness that I have despised and abused, and it is now changed into divine fury. If I look at the face of Jesus, and find there the correspondent features of his Father, I shall then hate to see it — for this very reason, because it bears his Father’s image, who is so terrible to my thoughts. I shall neither be able to bear the sight of God nor of his fairest copy, that is, Jesus his Son, because I am so shamefully unlike them both; and besides, I have affronted their majesty, and despised their mercy.
How painful and smarting will be the reflection of my heart in that day, when I shall remember, that Jesus called out to me from heaven, by the messengers of his grace, and said,” Behold me, behold me, look unto me from the ends of the earth, and be saved. But now he is armed with a commission of vengeance, and he strikes terror and exquisite pain into my soul with every frown, so that I shall wish to be forever ‘hid from the face of the Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come, and who shall be able’ to endure this wrath, to stand before his thunder, or bear the lightning of this day? Alas, how miserable must I be by an everlasting necessity, if I cannot bear the countenance of God and Christ, which is the spring of unchangeable happiness to all the saints and the blessed angels? 0 may I timely secure the love of my God, and gain an interest in the favour and salvation of the blessed Jesus! Here, 0 Lord, at thy foot I lay down all the weapons of my former rebellions; I implore thy love through the interest of thy Son, the great Mediator. Let me see the light of thy countenance, and the smiles of thy face. — Let me see a reconciled God, and let him tell me that my sins are all forgiven; then shall I not be afraid to meet the countenance of him that sits upon the throne, or the Lamb, when Christ shall return from heaven, to punish the impenitent rebels against divine grace.
Reft. 4. How hopeless, as well as distressed, i? the case of sinners in that day, when they are driven to this last extremity, to seek help from the rocks and the mountains?’ It is the last, but the fruitless refuge of a frighted and perishing creature. The rocks and mountains refuse to help them; they will not crush to death those wretches, whom the justice of God has doomed to a painful immortality, nor will they conceal or shelter those obstinate rebels, whom the Son of God has raised out of their graves, to be exposed to public shame and punishment. Those high and hollow rocks, those dismal dens and caverns, dark as midnight, those deep and gloomy retreats of melancholy and sorrow, which they shunned with the utmost aversion, and could hardly bear to think of, without horror, here on earth, are now become their only retreat and shelter; but it is a very vain and hopeless one.
When I see such awful appearances in nature, huge and lofty rocks hanging over my head, and at every step of my approach they seem to nod upon me with overwhelming ruin, when my curiosity searches far into their hollow clifts, their dark and deep caverns of solitude and desolation, methinks while I stand amongst them, I can hardly think myself in safety, and at best they give a sort of solemn and dreadful delight. Let me improve the scene to religious purposes, and raise a divine meditation. Am I one of those wretches, who shall call to these huge impending rocks to fall upon me? Am I that guilty and miserable creature, who shall entreat these mountains to cover me from him that sits on the throne and the Lamb? Am I prepared to meet the countenance of the blessed Jesus the Judge in that day? Have I such an acquaintance with the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, such a holy faith in his mediation, such a sincere love to him, and such an unfeigned repentance of all my sins, that I can look upon him as my friend and my refuge, and a friend infinitely better than rocks and mountains; for he not only screens me from the divine anger, but introduces me into the Father’s love and places me in his blissful presence for ever?
Refl. 5. ‘What hideous and’ everlasting mischief is contained in the nature of sin, especially sin against the gospel of Christ, against the methods of grace, and the offers of salvation, which exposes creatures to such extreme distress?’ The fairest and the most flattering iniquity, what beautiful colours soever it may put on in the hour of temptation, yet it carries all this hidden mischief and terror in the bosom of it, for it frights the creature from the sight of his Creator and his Saviour, and makes him fly to every vain refuge. Adam and Eve, the parents of our race, when they lost their innocence and became criminals, fled from the presence of God, with whom they conversed before in holy friendship, Gen. iii. 8. ‘They hid themselves among the trees of Paradise,’ and the thickest shadows of the garden; but the eye and the voice of God reached them there. The curse found them out, though that was a curse allayed with the promised blessing of a Saviour. Guilt will work in the conscience, and tell us, that ‘God is angry,’ and the next thought is, 1 where shall I hide myself from an angry God?’ But when the mercy of God has taught us where we may hide ourselves, even under the shadow of the cross of his Son, and we refuse to make him our refuge, there remains nothing but a final horror of soul, and a hopeless address to rocks and mountains, to hide us from an offended God, and p. provoked Saviour.
Whensoever, 0 my soul! thou shalt find or feel some flattering iniquity alluring thy senses, making court to thy heart, and ready to gain upon thy inward wishes, remember the distress and terror of heart that sinners must undergo in the great and terrible day of the Lord. Think of the rocks and mountains which they vainly call upon to befriend them, to shield them from the vengeance of that almighty arm which is provoked by sin, to make his creatures miserable. Remember, 0 my soul! and fear; remember and resist the vile temptation, and stand afar off from that practice, which will make thee afraid to see the face of God.
Refl. 6. ‘Of what infinite importance is it then to sinners, to gain a humble acquaintance and friendship with the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, that we may be able with comfort, to behold the face of him that sits on the throne in that day.’ Which of us can say, ‘I am not a sinner, I am not guilty before God?’ And which of us then has the courage and hardiness to declare, ‘I have no need of a Saviour?’ And is there any one among us, who hath not yet fled for refuge to Jesus our only and sufficient hope? There is a protection provided against a provoked God, but there is none against a neglected and abused Saviour: I mean, where this neglect and abuse is final and unrepented of. 0 how solicitous should every soul be, in a matter of this divine moment, this everlasting importance? What words of compassion shall we use, what words of awakening terror, to put sinners in mind of their extreme danger, if they neglect the only security which the gospel has appointed? What language of fear and importunity shall we make use of, to hasten you, 0 sinners! to the acquaintance, the faith and the love, of Jesus the Saviour, that you may behold his face, and the face of the Father, with serenity and joy in the last day? Give yourselves jp to him then without further delay, as your teacher, your high-priest, your reconciler, your Lord and king. His blessed offices are the only chambers of protection, when God shall arise to burn the world, and to avenge himself on his enemies that will not be reconciled.
Refl. 7. ‘Let us take occasion from my text, also to meditate on the happy circumstances of true Christians, in that day of terror.’ Behold the Judge appears, he cometh in the clouds surrounded with armies of avenging angels, the ministers of his indignation j he rideth on a chariot of flaming fire, the earth with all its mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, the fields and the forests become one spacious blaze, the sea grows dry and forsakes its shores, and rivers flee away at his lightning; the rocks are broken and shivered at the appearance of his majesty, the tombs are thrown open, and with terrible dismay shall the graves give up their dead; the pyramids of brick and stone, moulder and sink into dust, the sepulchres of brass and marble yield up their royal prisoners, and all the captives of death awake and start into life, at the voice of the Son of God. Amidst all these scenes of surprise and horror, with how serene a countenance, and how peaceful a soul, do the saints awake from their beds of earth? Calm and serene among all these confusions they arise from their long slumber, and go to meet their returning Saviour and their friend. They have seen him in the glass of his gospel, submitted to his laws, and rejoiced in his grace, and they now delight to see him face to face in his glory. They have seen him vested with his commission of mercy, they have heard and received his message of goodness and love, and they cannot but rejoice to see him coming to fulfil his last promises. They have cheerfully subjected themselves to his government here on earth, they have followed him in paths of holiness through the wilderness of this world; and what remains, but that they be publicly acknowledged by Jesus the Judge of all, and follow him up to the place of blessedness which he hath prepared for them.
Perhaps some of these holy ones, in the days of the flesh, were banished from the cities and the societies of men for the sake of Christ, they were driven out from their native towns, and forced to seek a shelter in solitary ‘dens and caves’ among rocks and mountains, “to wander through deserts in sheep-skins and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented,” Heb. xi. 31. They made the clefts of the rock and caverns of the earth their refuge from the face of their cruel persecutors. The mountains and rocks sheltered them from the wrath of princes, and the dark grottos of the earth, and the dens of wild beasts, concealed them from the rage of men, from the sword of the mighty; but now the scene is gloriously changed, the martyrs and holy confessors awaking from their graves, exult and triumph in the smiles of their Judge, and receive public honours before the whole creation of God. They behold the infinite consternation of haughty tyrants and persecuting princes, of proud generals and bloody captains in that day: they hear them ‘call to rocks and mountains to hide them from the face of him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb.’ The authority and regal honour of the emperors of the earth, hath long slept in the dust, but it is lost there for ever; their glory shall not awake nor arise with them. Behold the mighty sinners who have been the enemies of Christ, or negligent of his salvation, how they creep affrighted out of their shattered marbles, and leave all that pomp and pride of death in ruins, to appear before God with shame and everlasting contempt. The men of arms, the captains and sons of valour, whose swords lay under their heads, with their trophies and titles spread around them, shall raise their heads up from the dust, with utmost affright and anguish of spirit: their courage fails them before the face of Jesus the Lord and Judge of the whole creation. They would fly to the common refuge of slaves, they shrink into the holes of the rocks, and call to the mountains to screen and protect them: ‘and every bondman, and every freeman,’ who have not known nor loved God and Christ, are plunged into extremest distress; but the humble Christian is serene and joyful, and lifts up his head with courage and delight, in the midst of these scenes of astonishment and dismay.
‘He is come, he is come, saith the saint, even that Lord Jesus, whom I have seen, whom I have known and loved in the days of my mortal life, whom I have long waited for in the dust of death; he is come to reward all my labours, to wipe away all my sorrows, to finish my faith, and turn it into sight, to fulfil all my hopes and his own promises; he is come to deliver me for ever, from all my enemies, and to bear me to the place which he has prepared for those that love him, and long for his appearance.
0 blessed be the God of grace, who hath convinced me of the sins of my nature, and the sins of my life in the days of my flesh; who hath discovered to me the danger of a guilty and sinful state, hath shewn me the commission of mercy in the hands of his Son, hath pointed me to the Lamb of God, who was offered as a sacrifice to take away the sins of men, and hath inclined me to receive him in all his divine characters and offices, and to follow the Captain of my salvation through all the labours and dangers of life. I have trusted him, I have loved him, I have endeavoured, though under many frailties, to honour and obey him, and I can now behold his face without terror. While the mighty men of the earth tremble with amazement, and call to the rocks and mountains to hide them from his face, I rejoice to see him in his robes of judgment, for he is come to pronounce me righteous in the face of men and angels, to declare me a good and faithful servant before the whole creation, to set the crown of victory on my head, to take me to heaven with him, that * where he is I may be also to behold his glory,’ and to partake for ever of the blessings of his love, Amen.